Method and program for recording object allocation site

ABSTRACT

A method, system, and program for recording an object allocation site. In the structure of an object, a pointer to a class of an object is replaced by a pointer to an allocation site descriptor which is unique to each object allocation site, a common allocation site descriptor is used for objects created at the same allocation site, and the class of the object is accessed through the allocation site descriptor.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 from JapaneseApplication 2009-289944, filed Dec. 22, 2009, the entire contents ofwhich are herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method of recording an objectallocation site, and particularly to a method of recording an objectallocation site with a low cost and to a program therefore.

2. Description of Related Art

In general the building of a large scale application by use of anobject-oriented language such as JAVA®. One of problems involved in asystem running such an application is that the system goes down once theheap is used up because a large number of created objects are notcollected by garbage collection (GC). Important functions to addressthis problem are to obtain a memory dump at the time of system failureand to then determine in which code in an application each of theobjects remaining in the heap are created, i.e., to determine an “objectallocation site.”

To achieve these functions, there is an approach of logging an objectallocation site by use of Java virtual machine tool interface (JVMTI) orthe like, every time an object is created. This approach, however, hasproblems of slowing down execution and of enormously increasing the sizeof a recording region. Besides, when using this approach it is difficultto collect characteristics of the object allocation sites at runtime andthus to use the collected characteristics for optimization. Meanwhile,another approach to achieve the aforementioned functions is toadditionally provide an object itself with a region to record an objectallocation site. This approach needs only a small overhead at runtime,but requires additional memory for the allocation site recording. Forthis reason, this approach is not adequate to solve a shortage inmemory. Moreover, when using this approach it is difficult to collectinformation on the object allocation sites for optimization.

Conventional methods are disclosed in U.S. Application Publication2010/0229159 A1, in Chiba, “High-performance Write Barriers forThread-local Garbage Collection,” in Information Processing Society ofJapan (IPSJ) Transactions on Programming, Vol. 45, No. SIG5 (2004): pp.53-61, and the like. These are a method of converting (or coding)information on an object allocation site and then embedding theconverted (or coded) information in a region called “hashcode” whichinherently exists in an object header of some Java environments. Thismethod, however, is not applicable to an object model which has no suchregion. Moreover, this method is disadvantageous in that it involves anoverhead such as a cost for converting the allocation site. Furthermore,since it is converted, the information on the allocation site isdifficult to use at application runtime.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To overcome these deficiencies, the present invention provides a methodof recording an allocation site for an object, including: replacing apointer included in an object structure of the object and pointing to aclass of the object with a pointer to an allocation site descriptorwhich includes information on an allocation site at which the object iscreated and a pointer to the class of the object, using a commonallocation site descriptor for objects created at a same allocationsite, and accessing the class of the object by referring to the pointerto the class in the allocation site descriptor.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the presentinvention provides a system of recording an allocation site for anobject, including: means for replacing a pointer included in an objectstructure of the object and pointing to a class of the object with apointer to an allocation site descriptor which includes information onan allocation site at which the object is created and a pointer to theclass of the object, means for using a common allocation site descriptorfor objects created at a same allocation site, and means for accessingthe class of the object by referring to the pointer to the class in theallocation site descriptor.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, the presentinvention provides a computer program product for recording anallocation site for an object state, the computer program productincluding: a computer readable storage medium having computer readableprogram code embodied therewith, the computer readable program codeincluding computer readable program code configured to: replace apointer included in an object structure of the object and pointing to aclass of the object with a pointer to an allocation site descriptorwhich includes information on an allocation site at which the object iscreated and a pointer to the class of the object, use a commonallocation site descriptor for objects created at a same allocationsite, and access the class of the object by referring to the pointer tothe class in the allocation site descriptor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram which shows a general structure of an object.

FIG. 2 is a diagram which shows a structure of an object according tothe present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram which shows an example in which an existing regionis used as an allocation site descriptor.

FIG. 4 is a diagram which shows an example of expansion for collectinginformation for each allocation site.

FIG. 5 is a diagram which shows an entire structure of a case where thepresent invention is applied to an object oriented runtime environment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram which shows a flowchart of object creation.

FIG. 7 shows an expansion to reduce a cost for memory reference.

FIG. 8 is a diagram which shows an example of expansion in which astructure of a class itself is used as a first allocation sitedescriptor.

FIG. 9 is a diagram which shows a result of measurement of the number ofobject allocation sites.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a block diagram of computer hardware.

FIG. 11 is a diagram which shows a structure of an allocation sitedescriptor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In an object oriented language environment, an object is created byspecifying a “class” which is a template for the object. The header ofan object generally stores a pointer to a class so as to allow the classto be determined at runtime. FIG. 1 shows a general structure of anobject. An object mainly includes a header and a body. Objects A1, A2,A3, and B1 in FIG. 1 are created by instantiating Class A and Class Bwhich are each a template for a corresponding one of Objects A1, A2, A3,and B1.

If a language processor is capable of determining an object allocationsite at application runtime, the processor can easily reallocate anobject or optimize where an object is allocated by use of information onthe object allocation site. In an embodiment of the present invention,an object stores a pointer to an “allocation site descriptor” in itsobject header, instead of storing a pointer to a class.

FIG. 11 shows a structure of an allocation site descriptor. Theallocation site descriptor includes an address of an allocation site atwhich an object is created and a pointer to a class of the object.

Although the allocation site descriptor shown in FIG. 11 explicitlyincludes the allocation site address at which an object is created, itis more practical to determine the allocation site address by using codein which the allocation site descriptor exists. FIG. 2 shows an exampleof a structure of an object according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Allocation site descriptors 210 and 220 each include apointer to a class and information on a site in which an object iscreated. FIG. 2 shows three allocation site descriptors. In thestructure shown in FIG. 2, each of the allocation site descriptors hasonly a pointer to a class, and the allocation site address in which anobject is created is specified in code in which the allocation sitedescriptor exists. Hereinbelow, an address in which an object is createdis described as an object allocation site.

The allocation site descriptor determines an allocation site of anobject. In the example shown in FIG. 2, it is found that Objects A1 andA2 are created in Code X (210) while Objects A3 and B1 are created inCode Y (220). Here, no additional memory overhead is required for eachof Objects A1, A2, A3 and B1, since a pointer to the allocation sitedescriptor is stored in a region which is originally used to store apointer to a class by replacing the pointer to a class with theallocation site descriptor. Since the allocation site descriptor has apointer to a class, following the pointer to a class allows accessingclass information.

Objects created at the same site share the same allocation sitedescriptor. For this reason, the number of descriptors is much less thanthe number of objects, thereby making an additional memory overheadsmall. In this respect, if a region in a code instructing an objectcreation is used for the allocation site descriptor, it is possible toeliminate the additional memory overhead. Since the region forinstructing an object creation is already provided, there is no need toprepare a region dedicated to the allocation site descriptor.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which an already provided region is used foran allocation site descriptor 310. A class is specified to create anobject. Information on the class is statically stored in code in manycases. Using such a region eliminates the need to secure a new memoryarea for the allocation site descriptor. For example, when a Javainterpreter is executed, a (resolved) site of a constant pool indicatedby a bytecode “new” is usable as a descriptor. Meanwhile, in aJIT-compiled code, a site in which class information to be given to afunction for object creation (createObj, in FIG. 3) is included isusable as it is for an allocation site descriptor. In the former case,it is difficult to determine which “new” in the same class creates anobject. This is a trade-off to avoid increasing of a memory overhead.

In a case where class information is dynamically specified as in a caseof object creation by reflection, there may be no region usable for anallocation site descriptor. In this case, a special allocation sitedescriptor may be provided. If a “self pointer” as shown for Object A4in FIG. 3, provided for each class is used as a descriptor, it ispossible to keep the additional memory overhead small. Although thedetermination of an object allocation site is not possible in this case,such a case is rare.

Among those described above, only the self pointer involves anadditional memory overhead. Nevertheless, this is not a serious problembecause the number of classes is much less than the number of objects orthe number of allocation sites. Furthermore, depending onimplementation, some language processors already have one which issimilar to the self pointer included therein. For this reason, the usethereof does not lead to a large overhead.

In the method of recording an allocation site of the present embodimentof the invention, an allocation site descriptor is prepared for eachobject allocation site. Accordingly, extending a region of theallocation site descriptor and collecting therein information for theallocation site enable an optimization of object allocation atapplication runtime. FIG. 4 shows an example of expansion of theallocation site descriptor for collecting therein information for eachallocation site.

In FIG. 4, Objects A1 and A2 each store in its header a pointer to anallocation site descriptor 410. The allocation site descriptor 410 has apointer to Class A and an extended region. Object A3 stores in itsheader a pointer to an allocation site descriptor 420. The allocationsite descriptor 420 has a pointer to Class A and an extended region.Object B1 stores in its header a pointer to an allocation sitedescriptor 430. The allocation site descriptor 430 has a pointer toClass B and an extended region.

Statistical information may be stored in this extended region, such asthe types of objects and the number of objects which refer to theallocation site descriptor.

The following are conceivable examples of the collected information andthe optimization:

-   -   The number of live objects is counted for each allocation site        at the time of GC. If the number of live objects keeps        increasing in an allocation site, a warning is given that the        allocation sites for the objects might cause a memory leak.    -   In a case of employing a generational GC, a ratio of objects        promoted to an older generation region is calculated for each        allocation site. If an object is to be created at an allocation        site which has the high ratio, the object is determined to be        created in the older generation region.

Extending the allocation site descriptor may make it difficult to usethe aforementioned “already provided region” as it is. Even in thiscase, the feature of the present embodiment of the invention that theadditional memory overhead is small is maintained because the number ofallocation sites is much less than the number of objects.

FIG. 5 shows an entire structure of a case where the present inventionis applied to an object oriented runtime environment. Each of ObjectsA1, A2, A3, B1, and C1 points an allocation site descriptor 520corresponding to a site at which Objects A1, A2, A3, B1, or C1 itself iscreated. Classes A, B, and C are pointed at by the allocation sitedescriptors 520 in Code X, Code Y, and Code Z. Each of Classes A, B, andC is provided with a self pointer 510 which points Class A, B, or Citself. Object A4 points the self pointer 510 for Class A as itsallocation site descriptor.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of the object creation according to anembodiment of the present invention. It is a feature of the embodimentto provide the allocation site descriptor in addition to the classinformation, at the time of object creation. If the descriptor is notspecified, the self pointer of the class is used as an allocation sitedescriptor.

In Step 602, class information and an allocation site descriptor arereceived as arguments. In Step 604, it is checked whether or not theallocation site descriptor is specified. If the descriptor is specified,the processing proceeds to Step 608. If the descriptor is not specified,a self pointer of the class is used as the allocation site descriptor inStep 606, and the processing proceeds to Step 612. In Step 608, it ischecked whether or not the class information is equal to the classinformation in the allocation site descriptor. If yes, the processingproceeds to Step 612. If no, the processing proceeds to Step 610 wherethe processing ends as an argument error. In Step 612, an object of thespecified class is created in a heap. This processing is similar to thatin the conventional object creation processing. In Step 614, a pointerto the allocation site descriptor is stored in a header of the createdobject. Lastly, the processing proceeds to Step 616 where the createdobject is returned.

In the described embodiment of the present invention, pointing anallocation site descriptor from an object header allows determination ofan allocation site and collection of information for each allocationsite. This operation, however, requires one extra memory reference toaccess the class information. FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment to reducea cost for the extra memory reference. Among information in a class,that which is frequently referred to and scarcely changed is copied intoallocation site descriptors 710, 720, and 730. The information thuscopied is denoted by dataA and dataB In FIG. 7. Here, the copyingenables speeding up of access. Examples of the information which isfrequently referred to and scarcely changed include a virtual functiontable and an object size.

The method of this embodiment requires an extra memory. However, thismethod involves a memory overhead smaller than a method does in whichthe size of an object header is simply increased, because the number ofallocation sites is less than the number of objects.

Further, the memory overhead in the previous embodiment can be reducedby using a structure of a class itself as a first allocation sitedescriptor for the class. FIG. 8 shows an example of an embodiment inwhich a structure of a class itself is used as a first allocation sitedescriptor. FIG. 8 shows that the copies dataA and dataB are made lessthan those made in the method in the previous embodiment since each ofthe allocation site descriptors 710 and 730 in FIG. 7 is included in aclass structure itself.

In another embodiment, the allocation site descriptor of the presentinvention can be shared with multiple allocation sites of createdobjects as far as the objects belong to the same class. If a granularityof object information desired to be collected is on a class or packagebasis, the allocation site descriptors can be used in common in thismanner. This can save regions for collecting information. In otherwords, depending on a desired granularity of object information to becollected, an allocation site descriptor is shared with multipleallocation sites.

In contrast, it is also possible to collect information to a finerdegree in a case where not only an allocation site but also informationon a context for calling the allocation site is desired to be tracked.In this case, the collecting of information is made possible bypreparing allocation site descriptors respectively for contexts eventhough the contexts belong to the same allocation site. In other words,depending on a desired granularity of object information to becollected, different allocation site descriptors can be prepared forobjects even though the objects belong to the same allocation site.

The present invention enables information on object allocation sites tobe recorded and used with a small memory overhead. FIG. 9 shows a resultof measurement of the number of object allocation sites. The measurementresult is shown by taking multiple target Java applications in rows andtaking total memory usage (RSS value for a java process reported by ps),the number of classes, the number of allocation sites, and the averagenumber of objects in the heap in columns. The heap size is set to fourtimes as large as the minimum available heap. The result in FIG. 9 showsthat the number of classes and the number of allocation sites are muchless than the number of objects.

The present invention enables adding a field for information collectionto the allocation site descriptor and using the field for optimizationat runtime. It is experimentally found that even the addition and theuse of the field involve a small additional memory overhead because thenumber of allocation sites is much less than the number of objects.

An embodiment of the present invention discloses a method of using analready provided region as an allocation site descriptor. It isexperimentally found that this method involves no additional memoryoverhead. In a method for a case where no self pointer is prepared foreach class from the beginning, a small additional overhead is involved.Even in this case, it is not a serious problem because the number ofclasses is much less than the number of allocation sites as shown inFIG. 9.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a block diagram of computer hardware in theembodiment of the present invention. A computer system 1001 according tothe embodiment of the present invention includes a CPU 1002 and a mainmemory 1003 which are connected to a bus 1004. The CPU 1002 ispreferably based on a 32-bit or 64-bit architecture, and can employ, forexample, XEON® series, CORE™ series, ATOM™ series, PENTIUM® series, andCELERON® series, of Intel Corporation, PHENOM™ series, ATHLON™ series,TURION™ series, and SEMPRON™ of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc, and thelike.

A display 1006, such as an LCD monitor, is connected to the bus 1004through a display controller 1005. The display 1006 is used, in order tomanage the computer system 1001, for displaying, with an appropriategraphic interface, information on the computer system 1001 connected toa network through a communication line 1015 and information on softwareoperating on the computer system 1001. A hard disk or silicon disk 1008and a CD-ROM, DVD, or Blu-ray drive 1009 are further connected to thebus 1004 through an IDE or SATA controller 1007.

The hard disk 1008 stores an operating system, preferably, a program anddata including codes of an object oriented runtime environment, so as tobe loadable onto the main memory 1003. The data of objects of thepresent invention is stored in the hard disk 1008 or the main memory1003 and processed by the CPU 1002.

The CD-ROM, DVD, or Blu-ray drive 1009 is used, as needed, toadditionally introduce a program from a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, or a Blu-rayDisk to the hard disk 1008. A keyboard 1011 and a mouse 1012 are furtherconnected to the bus 1004 through a keyboard/mouse controller 1010.

A communication interface 1014 complies with, for example, the ETHERNET®protocol, and is connected to the bus 1004 through a communicationcontroller 1013. The communication interface 1014 plays a role ofphysically connecting the computer system 1001 with the communicationline 1015, and provides a network interface layer to the TCP/IPcommunication protocol, being a communication function of the operatingsystem of the computer system 1001. The communication line 1015 may beconfigured as a wired LAN environment, or as a wireless LAN environmentwhich is based on wireless LAN connection standards, such as IEEE802.11a/b/g/n.

The present invention is capable of recording information on an objectallocation site with a small memory overhead. In addition, the presentinvention enables a processor to determine an object allocation site atapplication runtime. Accordingly, the present invention enablesreallocation of an object or optimization of an object allocation by useof information on the object allocation site.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

Referring now to FIG. 6, the flowchart and block diagrams in the Figureillustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possibleimplementations of systems, methods and computer program productsaccording to various embodiments of the present invention. In thisregard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent amodule, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or moreexecutable instructions for implementing the specified logicalfunction(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware andcomputer instructions.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method of recording anallocation site for an object, comprising: replacing a pointer includedin an object structure of said object and pointing to a class of saidobject with a pointer to an allocation site descriptor which includesinformation on an allocation site at which said object is created and apointer to said class of said object; using a common allocation sitedescriptor for objects created at a same allocation site; accessing saidclass of said object by referring to said pointer to said class in saidallocation site descriptor; providing an extended region in saidallocation site descriptor and collection therein object information foreach allocation site at which said object is created; and optimizingobject allocation at application runtime by use of said collectedinformation.
 2. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1,wherein a region in which said pointer to said class of said object isrecorded for the use of the allocation is used as said allocation sitedescriptor.
 3. The computer-implemented method according to claim 2,wherein in a case where said region in which said pointer to said classof said object is recorded does not exist, a self pointer which is apointer to said class itself is used as said allocation site descriptor.4. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, furthercomprising copying part of class information into said extended region.5. The computer-implemented method according to claim 4, wherein saidclass information is a class structure itself and is used as saidallocation site descriptor.
 6. The computer-implemented method accordingto claim 1, further comprising using a common allocation site descriptorfor a plurality of allocation sites depending on a granularity of objectinformation desired to be collected.
 7. The computer-implemented methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising preparing different allocationsite descriptors even for a single allocation site depending on agranularity of object information desired to be collected.
 8. A systemof recording an allocation site for an object including a memory incommunication with a processor, wherein the processor is configured to:replace a pointer included in an object structure of said object andpointing to a class of said object with a pointer to an allocation sitedescriptor which includes information on an allocation site at whichsaid object is created and a pointer to said class of said object; use acommon allocation site descriptor for objects created at a sameallocation site; access said class of said object by referring to saidpointer to said class in said allocation site descriptor; provide anextended region in said allocation site descriptor and collectingtherein object information for each allocation site at which said objectis created; and optimize object allocation at application runtime by useof said collected information.
 9. The system according to claim 8,wherein a region in which said pointer to said class of said object isrecorded for the use of the allocation is used as said allocation sitedescriptor.
 10. The system according to claim 9, wherein in a case wheresaid region in which said pointer to said class of said object isrecorded does not exist, a self pointer which is a pointer to said classitself is used as said allocation site descriptor.
 11. The systemaccording to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:copy part of class information into said extended region.
 12. The systemaccording to claim 11, wherein said class information is a classstructure itself and is used as said allocation site descriptor.
 13. Thesystem according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configuredto: use a common allocation site descriptor for a plurality ofallocation sites depending on a granularity of object informationdesired to be collected.
 14. The system according to claim 8, whereinthe processor is further configured to: prepare different allocationsite descriptors even for a single allocation site depending on agranularity of object information desired to be collected.
 15. Acomputer program product for recording an allocation site for an objectstate, the computer program product comprising: a non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium having computer readable program codeembodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:computer readable program code configured to: replace a pointer includedin an object structure of said object and pointing to a class of saidobject with a pointer to an allocation site descriptor which includesinformation on an allocation site at which said object is created and apointer to said class of said object; use a common allocation sitedescriptor for objects created at a same allocation site; access saidclass of said object by referring to said pointer to said class in saidallocation site descriptor; provide an extended region in saidallocation site descriptor and collecting therein object information foreach allocation site at which said object is created; and optimizingobject allocation at application runtime by use of said collectedinformation.